John Elway returned to the Broncos to win a Super Bowl.But the Broncos won't win a Super Bowl unless Elway improves his way of building a football team.To become champions, the Broncos need to be more than quarterback Peyton Manning and 52 interchangeable parts.If Denver wants to win the Super Bowl, then the mission of Elway should be to draft a defensive lineman with mo...

McDaniels had a slew of picks when he traded Cutler to the Bears. He drafted Moreno, Tebow, Beadles, and Decker. However, for the sake of the argument, he could've drafted Matthews, Raji, and Orapko. To this day, I don't know what McDaniels was doing, but maybe he was solidifying the offense first and going to work on the defense next. Who knows? He did enough other suspect things to get him kicked out of Dove Valley.

There is no more loyalty in the NFL, it's five years and on to the next team that will pay the highest price. Loyalty is sticking to the team that drafted you and playing for them your entire career. Maybe I don't get it, but you sign a contract for 18 million for five years, you are set for life in the first year, the other four years are topping with a cherry to top it off. Play with that team rest of your career and be happy. But no, players want 58 million dollar contracts after their first five years. Green greed has faded loyalty into nothing. Money can't buy happiness, we think it can, but it doesn't.

The Broncos need to be more than Manning to win a Super Bowl. Yes, the Broncos have talent on both sides of the ball. But without Manning, what are they? An 8-8 team? Maybe 9-7? To win it all they need a solid draft, maybe a great one, two impact players great. And they need Von Miller to return as a dominant defensive force. Last season's offensive point scoring swagger won't get it done. That act has been exposed, fun as it was most of the regular season. It's not a Championship formula. The Broncos need to be a more multiple-dimensional threat, more balanced, less Manning dependent. That's not a cut against Peyton. He's great... but one guy great won't get it done. Right Tom Brady? That's the harsh lesson learned in NJ this past February.

So Elway and Co. need to score a couple of big ones in the coming draft. And Peyton needs to keep the offensive train rolling. And Von needs to be the Von of pre last season. And this year's FA signings need to fill some of the holes they were signed to fill. And the injury bug needs to move out of Denver. And they need a little luck here and there... And...

The NFL draft builds the foundation and establishes the personality of a team. Scouting is tedious work, best suited for football geeks, which might help explain why Josh McDaniels was better at drafting players than Elway.

Reality's take

The gap in the Denver Broncos roster attributable to the poor 2009 and 2010 drafts got a little bigger in recent weeks and continues to impact how the team is constructed.

It's tough to "stack the drafts" -- John Elway's description of what the foundation of the Broncos' roster must look like - when a couple of the bricks are missing. And a couple of the bricks are still decidedly missing on this Broncos' roster. By the virtue of cuts even before the Elway/John Fox regime came on the job in 2011 and the decisions made since, just two players remain from those drafts of the combined 19 players selected.

And just one of the two -- wide receiver Demaryius Thomas -- is a full-time starter with a Pro Bowl or two on his resume. Safety David Bruton, the special teams captain in 2013, is the other.

The rest? They either didn't make it out of their first camp -- Blake Schlueter -- even before the Broncos were again a playoff team, didn't become starters (players like Richard Quinn, Seth Olsen, Eric Olsen and Jammie Kirlew) or are players the Broncos elected not to pursue when they hit free agency like this year's group of Eric Decker, Knowshon Moreno and Zane Beadles.

Even this past season Thomas, Decker and Beadles were the only players among the 19 selected in those two drafts who were also starters from start to finish.

Through the Broncos three drafts under Elway, they already have more talent, as in starters then McD had. And those players are more than likely going to be Broncos for years.

Kiszla is just horrible and his laziness is there for all to see. For goodness sake DP, get someone who knows about football to cover the Broncos. This stuff is embarrassing.

All Kiz had to do is a little homework and he could have avoided an incredibly embarrassing article on his part. It's like the guy doesn't read about jack, the comments section is far more informed then Kiz.

Please DP, can we get some professionalism up in here? Kiz is the worst.

The NFL draft builds the foundation and establishes the personality of a team. Scouting is tedious work, best suited for football geeks, which might help explain why Josh McDaniels was better at drafting players than Elway.

Reality's take

The gap in the Denver Broncos roster attributable to the poor 2009 and 2010 drafts got a little bigger in recent weeks and continues to impact how the team is constructed.

It's tough to "stack the drafts" -- John Elway's description of what the foundation of the Broncos' roster must look like - when a couple of the bricks are missing. And a couple of the bricks are still decidedly missing on this Broncos' roster. By the virtue of cuts even before the Elway/John Fox regime came on the job in 2011 and the decisions made since, just two players remain from those drafts of the combined 19 players selected.

And just one of the two -- wide receiver Demaryius Thomas -- is a full-time starter with a Pro Bowl or two on his resume. Safety David Bruton, the special teams captain in 2013, is the other.

The rest? They either didn't make it out of their first camp -- Blake Schlueter -- even before the Broncos were again a playoff team, didn't become starters (players like Richard Quinn, Seth Olsen, Eric Olsen and Jammie Kirlew) or are players the Broncos elected not to pursue when they hit free agency like this year's group of Eric Decker, Knowshon Moreno and Zane Beadles.

Even this past season Thomas, Decker and Beadles were the only players among the 19 selected in those two drafts who were also starters from start to finish.

Through the Broncos three drafts under Elway, they already have more talent, as in starters then McD had. And those players are more than likely going to be Broncos for years.

Kiszla is just horrible and his laziness is there for all to see. For goodness sake DP, get someone who knows about football to cover the Broncos. This stuff is embarrassing.

All Kiz had to do is a little homework and he could have avoided an incredibly embarrassing article on his part. It's like the guy doesn't read about jack, the comments section is far more informed then Kiz.

Please DP, can we get some professionalism up in here? Kiz is the worst.

It's not just him a few bloggers will be around any time now to tell us all how much Elway's drafts suck.

Apparently to some unless every player drafted goes to a pro bowl the draft was a bust. Of course most of these people base their opinions on their 20/20 hindsight.

Yes Elway has missed on some players but what team hasn't? People see a couple of teams that get lucky with late round talent and then declare them genius and Elway stupid yet 31 other teams didn't draft that player either.

People don't understand the nature of the draft is a crap shoot. Yes a few teams out of 32 have had success in the draft yet those same teams who possess the "build through the draft" philosophy haven't been to a Superbowl in a while either.

All teams could stand to improve in some form or another so not much of a leap to say Denver could use some improvement in the draft.

But as you stated it's not like Elway is striking out on every pick. He HAS added talent to this team through the draft and I'll bet he will continue to do so.

It's easy to pick and choose bad choices! How about Miller, Travathon, Julius Thomas, Rahim, Moore, Orlando Franklin, Malik Jackson? Wolf has been steady . Too early to tell on 2013 but the first 3 picks played fairly well for rookies.

Elway is a competitor and a born salesman in a lot of ways so it is not surprising that his greatest roster success has come through free agency. And his dislike for McDaniels and his people is palpable--the same as many Broncos fans including myself.

I don't trust Matt Russell as the Broncos' chief draft architect, but maybe former Browns GM Tom Heckert can help improve the team's efforts in that area? I know the Browns haven't had many great drafts either, but at least it seems as if Elway knows himself enough to know that drafting isn't going to be his strong suit.

brianflor wrote:It's easy to pick and choose bad choices! How about Miller, Travathon, Julius Thomas, Rahim, Moore, Orlando Franklin, Malik Jackson? Wolf has been steady . Too early to tell on 2013 but the first 3 picks played fairly well for rookies.

Virgil Green pretty good 7th rounder.

But that's the thing Brian. Elway has drafted a bunch of solid/mediocre guys but nobody really could be considered a star other than Miller. Perhaps now you can start to put that label on Julius Thomas. Travathan is a cut above. Everybody else are just guys.The Little Guy

Even if it means my death the evil poison of hatred and bigotry which they're trying to spread in the name of Patriotism must be wiped out. Captain America

brianflor wrote:It's easy to pick and choose bad choices! How about Miller, Travathon, Julius Thomas, Rahim, Moore, Orlando Franklin, Malik Jackson? Wolf has been steady . Too early to tell on 2013 but the first 3 picks played fairly well for rookies.

Virgil Green pretty good 7th rounder.

But that's the thing Brian. Elway has drafted a bunch of solid/mediocre guys but nobody really could be considered a star other than Miller. Perhaps now you can start to put that label on Julius Thomas. Travathan is a cut above. Everybody else are just guys.The Little Guy

And yet they still made it to the Superbowl.

No team in this league is made up of nothing but Superstars. All teams including the successful ones rely on those solid blue collar guys that just come in and get the job done.

Yep...on the strength of free agents and players drafted before the current FO was in place.

No team in this league is made up of nothing but Superstars.

Nobody said that. What I said was Elway has drafted one possibly 2 star players in 3 drafts.

All teams including the successful ones rely on those solid blue collar guys that just come in and get the job done.

Yes...the solid blue collar guys are more succesful if they can feed off of stars.

I don't understand why people are so down on those players.

You only get down on those players if they are the best you have. Example...in Denver's super bowl years they had a blue collar linebacker named Glen Cadrez. Solid guy. He fed off of more talented players like Bill Romanowski and John Mobley. If Cadrez was the best of Denver's linebackers that would have been a problem. The current Broncos rely too much on a 38 year old QB.

The Little Guy

Even if it means my death the evil poison of hatred and bigotry which they're trying to spread in the name of Patriotism must be wiped out. Captain America

brianflor wrote:It's easy to pick and choose bad choices! How about Miller, Travathon, Julius Thomas, Rahim, Moore, Orlando Franklin, Malik Jackson? Wolf has been steady . Too early to tell on 2013 but the first 3 picks played fairly well for rookies.

Virgil Green pretty good 7th rounder.

But that's the thing Brian. Elway has drafted a bunch of solid/mediocre guys but nobody really could be considered a star other than Miller. Perhaps now you can start to put that label on Julius Thomas. Travathan is a cut above. Everybody else are just guys.The Little Guy

How many stars get drafted where the Broncos are drafting? The foundation is being set. I think 2012 was really good with trading the 1st pick. No one late in that round has been very impressive. I am not as excited about 2013, but we will see there. It really depends on Ball and Sly. Both could end up being great players or so-so.

McDaniels was terrible at drafting,TimTebow? Richard Quinn,Alphonso Smith,Jarvis Moss?? John Elway has done a fantastic job drafting,of course Von Miller makes such a difference if he's playing like the first year or not.UFA's count also so let's add Chris Harris.I hope we can get Ryan Shazier but I'm worried he won't be there at 31,but then there would be some good CB's like Fuller ,Roby or Verret there that we need and we draft Van Noy or Borland later.Go Broncos!! btw What an person Mike Shanahan was to trade Champ to us,go back and look at Champs numbers from the combine they are very rare.

The NFL draft builds the foundation and establishes the personality of a team. Scouting is tedious work, best suited for football geeks, which might help explain why Josh McDaniels was better at drafting players than Elway.

Reality's take

The gap in the Denver Broncos roster attributable to the poor 2009 and 2010 drafts got a little bigger in recent weeks and continues to impact how the team is constructed.

It's tough to "stack the drafts" -- John Elway's description of what the foundation of the Broncos' roster must look like - when a couple of the bricks are missing. And a couple of the bricks are still decidedly missing on this Broncos' roster. By the virtue of cuts even before the Elway/John Fox regime came on the job in 2011 and the decisions made since, just two players remain from those drafts of the combined 19 players selected.

And just one of the two -- wide receiver Demaryius Thomas -- is a full-time starter with a Pro Bowl or two on his resume. Safety David Bruton, the special teams captain in 2013, is the other.

The rest? They either didn't make it out of their first camp -- Blake Schlueter -- even before the Broncos were again a playoff team, didn't become starters (players like Richard Quinn, Seth Olsen, Eric Olsen and Jammie Kirlew) or are players the Broncos elected not to pursue when they hit free agency like this year's group of Eric Decker, Knowshon Moreno and Zane Beadles.

Even this past season Thomas, Decker and Beadles were the only players among the 19 selected in those two drafts who were also starters from start to finish.

Through the Broncos three drafts under Elway, they already have more talent, as in starters then McD had. And those players are more than likely going to be Broncos for years.

Kiszla is just horrible and his laziness is there for all to see. For goodness sake DP, get someone who knows about football to cover the Broncos. This stuff is embarrassing.

All Kiz had to do is a little homework and he could have avoided an incredibly embarrassing article on his part. It's like the guy doesn't read about jack, the comments section is far more informed then Kiz.

Please DP, can we get some professionalism up in here? Kiz is the worst.

It's not just him a few bloggers will be around any time now to tell us all how much Elway's drafts suck.

Apparently to some unless every player drafted goes to a pro bowl the draft was a bust. Of course most of these people base their opinions on their 20/20 hindsight.

Yes Elway has missed on some players but what team hasn't? People see a couple of teams that get lucky with late round talent and then declare them genius and Elway stupid yet 31 other teams didn't draft that player either.

People don't understand the nature of the draft is a crap shoot. Yes a few teams out of 32 have had success in the draft yet those same teams who possess the "build through the draft" philosophy haven't been to a Superbowl in a while either.

All teams could stand to improve in some form or another so not much of a leap to say Denver could use some improvement in the draft.

But as you stated it's not like Elway is striking out on every pick. He HAS added talent to this team through the draft and I'll bet he will continue to do so.

Here I come....I hold Mr. Elway to his standards especially as it relates to his early round picks. Mr. Elway is on the record as saying he wants IMPACT PLAYERS...outside of Miller, what other top pick can you objectively say that about? and please don't give me the company line that draft picks take years to develop...Seattle's picks didn't need years..Trevathan didn't need years...

Is he striking out on every pick? No...is he drafting the IMPACT PLAYERS that he says is his goal? NO

Repeat after me....The much maligned defense did not lose the Super Bowl...The blame goes to the Coaching staff and the High Flying Offense led by #18...